With a sharp gasp, Lucas shot up from his bed. His tendrils flaring with a silver glow, ripping his sleeves to shreds. When he spread his senses and noticed he was still in the manor, he calmed himself down with deep breaths and relaxed his tendrils.

"Relax… It was just a nightmare…"

Taking a look at his sleeves, he sighed at the damage he had caused. As he contemplated changing, he felt the clothes nudge at him.

"Hmm? You want my energy? Okay—"

He fell silent as his clothes began mending themselves rapidly. The clothes came back to normal, fitting his tendrils snugly.

"Nice!"

With that taken care of, he turned to his window and gazed outside. It was the crack of dawn, a gentle light filtered in from Lucas' windows. Its tranquil radiance illuminated the beautiful surroundings of the manor.

"Hmm."

With a deep breath, he rolled out of bed and began stretching. With each relaxed motion, he felt his energy revolve within him. He eventually lost himself to the familiar routine, his Mind guiding his body fluidly.

As he kept exercising, his [Spirit Sense] activated. The Life energy around him flowed into him as his [Leech] activated as well.

"Arrgh."

He quickly snapped out of this trance-like state with a pained groan. Steam rose from his body as he hastily stopped, his Physique struggling to bear the energy.

"Ha…ha…ha… Being injured sucks."

After he recovered to a manageable level, he looked around his room for about five minutes. Tinkering with the stuff at the wooden desk proved futile. And since he couldn't risk using his Spirit energy on it, he had no choice but to sit still.

After ten minutes he could already feel boredom setting in. As he moved over to the door, he heard three gentle knocks on the it. He stopped in his tracks and asked,

"…Who is it?"

/Good morning sir Lucas. It's me, Sasha. My mistress told me to come fetch you./

Sasha's delicate voice rang out in Lucas' mind. Lucas relaxed once more and headed for the door. It opened automatically and Lucas walked out of his room, his arms swinging due to his heavy sleeves. Sasha stood there with her usual outfit, cautiously avoiding eye contact. Lucas smiled at this and said,

"It's okay, Sasha. I don't bite. I promise."

Sasha just nodded with a faint blush and walked off, her tail tense. She did her best to ignore the baleful aura Lucas subconsciously emitted. Lucas just shook his head and followed behind her.

In a few minutes, they were out in a training field. They could see Evélyne in a fitting blue and black vest and pants, training. She performed a refined series of stances, punches, kicks, and steps.

Each movement measured to the tee but held infinite variations, no move was exactly the same. Lucas watched on in awe and mild apprehension.

After a few more transitions, Evélyne reset to a more natural state. Exhaling a deep breath she turned to the two and walked over.

/Good morning./

"Good morning, Evélyne. What do you want?"

Evélyne wore a perplexed expression as she asked in turn,

/Don't you want to learn about our world? Or ask me questions at the very least?/

Lucas gave her a toothy smile,

"Of course I do, doesn't mean I have to ask you though."

Evélyne paused as she processed his words before nodding indifferently,

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/Yes, that is true./

She observed Lucas for a few moments before walking back towards the center of the training field. Lucas' eyes widened slightly as he thought to himself,

'You're just going to leave like that?'

He turned to Sasha only to see her holding back her laughter. Lucas clenched his jaw in mild frustration before breaking into a laugh. This prompted Sasha to laugh as well while he thought to himself,

'Am I a twelve year old? Why am I being so petty?'

Shaking his head, he cleared up his thoughts and yelled out to Evélyne, making her stop.

"Hey! Evélyne!"

"Hmm?"

"I do want to talk, sorry for being so… abrasive."

/That's fine, I… think I understand your apprehension. If I was placed in a similar situation, I don't know how I would react./

Lucas' fake smile softened slightly at this, he continued.

"Well… that doesn't mean I should be an ass about everything. I do want to learn about the world. My question is, what are you willing to teach me?"

Lucas felt oddly nervous at this point, he had just laid out his intent in the open and now he felt vulnerable for doing so. Before self doubt could set in, Evélyne simply responded with.

/Ask your questions. If they are within my reach, I shall oblige you with an answer./

Feeling some relief, Lucas pressed forward with slightly more confidence. He decided to start with something more general after all, almost everything was a complete mystery to him at this point.

"So… what planet are we on?"

/We are on Veld, the fourth closest Tier 1 Domain to the nearest star core./

Lucas raised a brow at that,

"The entire planet is a domain like the cavern?"

/Yes and no. There's no comparison between tier 0 and tier 1 existences even though they share similarities./

"Okay? I'm just going to ignore that for now… So what's up with the mind talking?"

Evélyne tilted her head slightly as if confused by the question. After a few seconds, she responded with.

/It's just a rudimentary application of the Mind attribute. With sufficient training, you shall be able to do such easily./

"Ohh, cool."

As they spoke, they stepped closer to each other. Sasha just stood back and watched the interaction happen. She could feel the blank aura of her mistress shifting and evolving as the conversation went on. Her eyes brightened as she thought,

'Is she feeling something new?'

Sasha kept her excitement to herself though. Both Lucas and Evélyne had long since passed surface level questions as Lucas asked,

"What are you? I mean that in a literal sense. Because something about you is very… wrong. I just can't place it. Sorry if I'm being rude."

Lucas said all this with a straight face. Having gauged Evélyne, he knew she was quite indifferent to personal questions. Evélyne didn't even blink as she replied with,

/This wrongness you perceive… it is not something I can express with words. I can only show you if you are willing./

"… I'm willing."

Lucas looked at Evélyne curiously as she walked towards him and stopped some centimeters apart. Due to her 2.5 meter height, Lucas had to raise his head to see her face. She looked down at him, her hair swaying in a light breeze as she said,

/I'm going to place my hands on your head in a few moments. Are you comfortable with that?/

Her expression was flat as she made the request. Lucas just nodded. Evélyne slowly brought her hands to Lucas' temples, her eyes glowing with Spirit energy. When see made contact with him, she injected him with a small amount of her Spirit energy. He felt a sudden shift in how he perceived… everything.

He could assess just how injured he was down to the cellular level, his body movements which he thought were perfect before felt grossly inefficient. His Spirit energy circulation, his Skill usage, he felt like he could fix them all. He could make himself perfect—

Evélyne calmly retracted her hands, her gaze capturing Lucas' expression shift from being entranced to freezing awkwardly. A small smile curved her pinky lips as she asked,

/Does that answer your question?/

Lucas' jaw dropped. He instead asked her a question in turn.

"… is that how you feel all the time?"

Evélyne nodded faintly as she said,

/Yes. From what I know, this is due to activating my Essence./

Lucas immediately picked up and on this and asked,

"What type of Essence do you have?"

Evélyne stepped back from Lucas to ease the strain on his neck as she said,

/Perfection./

Lucas' found himself nodding, that matched with what he felt from her. But he was still shocked how much of a difference her Essence made. If he could active his Essence, what sort of effects would it have?

"So how do Essences work? Does your Essence let you automatically do everything perfectly??"

Evélyne chuckled softly at Lucas wild expressions as she responded,

/In theory, I should be able to. But that's something for the future./

"Then can you tell me how to activate my Essence?"

/No. No one can help you with the process but there are some few requirements you must attain before activating it. You can learn those from the library or from me. But that should come when you have a stable foundation for that activation./

Lucas expression dimmed at that,

"What constitutes this stable foundation?"

"Mastering your Attributes."

"Then… can you teach me how to fight?"

Lucas suddenly asked out of the blue. Evélyne lips curved a little wider as she nodded faintly.

/Of course. But right now, you're too injured for anything too harsh. How about some light sparing till you recover?/

Lucas nodded frantically, even though he still felt a lot of mixed feelings about Evélyne, strength was still the ultimate arbiter.

Without sufficient strength, carrying out Crash's wish and his own goals would be impossible. Period.

Evélyne trained her focus on Sasha, signaling her to move to the training field. Lucas was confused, but Evélyne soon clarified.

/You shall be facing Sasha. I will be the referee./

"Really??"

Lucas asked in slight disbelief, Evélyne nodded. When he turned back to Sasha, her simple yet elegant gown had morphed into comfortable battle robes. Her gaze was uncharacteristically sharp and focused.

/Ready when you are, sir Lucas./

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